Identities
by Chloe Casey
Summary: Theodore D. Kellerman was said to be a boy genius. Well, a boy genius with serious issues. While his parents are away on yet another business trip, Ted overhears a strange man plotting against the Avengers and plans to stop him at all costs. Even if that means telling the world about a well kept secret passed through the generations of the Kellerman family.
1. Antimatter

Book One

Chapter One

I barely knew where I was when I turned toward a giant skyscraper and ran inside. My instincts were the only thing guiding me. I glanced around the building, taking in my surroundings just enough to be sure that this was the place. I walked over to the man working behind one of the front desks. He looked at me curiously. I doubted that he saw kids like me floating around here all that often.

"Yes, Sir? What is it that you need?"

I glanced over my shoulder. "I have to talk to Tony Stark."

He sighed. "Sir, you must have either an appointment or-"

"This is _really _important," I said, "He needs to know about it."

"I can put a message on his answer machine, but I can't do anything else."

"Okay, this is ridiculous." I pulled out my phone and pressed play. The man had to lean closer in order to listen to the recording.

"Yes, of course, I already set it up," someone said, "The antimatter won't hold long enough for them to even detect the bomb-"

I shut off the recording. "I need to talk to Tony Stark. _Now._"

The man stood up, looking a bit flustered. "Right this way, Sir."

The man showed me to one of the elevators and pressed the button for the top floor. I waited as patiently as possible for about five minutes. I had to say, the elevators were pretty fast. I had never gone up over ninety floors in five minutes. I guess the music was nice, too. Nothing that you'd expect in a regular elevator.

The elevator door opened and I walked through without waiting for the man. Several powerful-looking men looked up from their conversation. One of them had dark hair and bright blue eyes; the would be the man that I was looking for, the ingenious Tony Stark.

"I am terribly sorry to interrupt you-" the man said.

"You have a bomb in this building," I interrupted, "Actually, an antimatter bomb, to be more precise."

Stark raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"There's a bomb-" I began.

"No, I heard," he said, "but either way I have a security system working twenty-four/seven on searching for possible bombs-"

"Antimatter isn't all that easy to detect," I interrupted, "With the antiprotons, antineutrons, and positrons it is both existent and nonexistent. And it is never stable and can't last all that long without the proper preservation-"

Stark raised a hand to stop me. "I know about antimatter, kid. But the systems would have picked up any trace of it."

I exhaled. "Do you _really _think that someone who wants to blow up your skyscraper will let your many computers find out about it?" I pulled my phone out and tossed it to him. "Play the recording. Rewind it, and then play it."

Everyone watched Stark with uncertain faces as he tapped the screen twice. The recording played, but I could barely hear it.

"There's a volume-"

"I know, I know. I _am _Iron Man, kid."

Stark turned up the volume.

"Yes, of course, I already set it up," the recording spat out, "The antimatter won't hold long enough for them to even detect the bomb before it goes critical." There was a pause. "The Avengers? Screw the Avengers! Nobody wants them around anymore, not even the government. They're only too afraid of them to do anything about it-"

Stark stopped the recording, tossed the phone back to me, and walked over to a desk. The others stood up and followed him as he started working on the holographic computer there.

"Jarvis? Run a scan of the building," he ordered, "Look for anything dealing with antimatter."

There was a moment of strained silence. One of the guys standing behind Stark looked up. Seeing how he had a bow on his shoulder, I was pretty certain that he was Hawkeye.

"Where did you get that recording?" he asked.

"I was at Starbucks and I saw a strange looking man," I told him, "I followed him and recorded the conversation he had on his phone."

"Which Starbucks?" Hawkeye demanded.

"Right off of Columbus Avenue and West Eighty-First Street."

"I'll be back-" he started.

Stark grabbed his arm. "You stay. You might be able to diffuse the bomb."

"You can't diffuse unstable antimatter," I put in.

He looked up at me. "Who's to say it's unstable?"

I sighed. "The recording. The guy who put the bomb in this building."

Stark turned back to his holographic computer. "Antimatter isn't completely unstable if-"

"You need to make a Penning Trap," I interrupted. I couldn't stand how he wasn't seeing this. "That will stabilize it. And antimatter is unstable all the time. It shouldn't even exist in this universe and the fact that it does-"

"Is what makes it so dangerous. I know about antimatter, kid. And I know what I'm doing. Jarvis, how are we doing?"

"Arc reactor," I muttered, "Of course."

"Arc reactor," an AI said, "It is unstable."

Stark walked around the table as sirens went off. "Clint, I would like it very much if you could get the boy genius and everyone else out of here safely."

"What are you going to do?" Hawkeye asked.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" he said, "I'm going to diffuse that bomb before it can blow up the arc reactor."

"Good luck then."

"Sure, sure. I've done worse than diffusing antimatter bombs."

Hawkeye managed to pulled me to a set of stairs before I could even think about what Stark was about to do. I struggled with him for a moment, and then realized it was useless and just continued letting him push me down the stairs.

"I can help him," I told him.

"No offense, but you're just a kid," Hawkeye said, "And Stark _does _know what he's doing."

"But-"

"He won't even let you help, so stop arguing with the fact that you can't help him."

I stayed quiet for a moment. After what seemed like ages, we made it to the bottom floor. People were running to the doors like wildfire, some people were screaming, and others were standing stock-still in fear while others were working on getting them to move. Hawkeye glanced around uncertainly, as if he wanted to help everyone and not just one person only because he was told to.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Why do you want to know?" I snapped, "I thought you all were kicking me out of here."

"Tony just wants you safely away from the blast radius," he sighed.

"Even you know that's not true."

We got outside.

"Look, you're pretty smart for a fourteen year old-"

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen year old kid. Tony might just feel threatened, seeing how you seem to have just as much knowledge as his brain can hold."

I shook my head, though he was probably right.

"You still haven't told me your name."

I stared at him for a minute. "Theodore D. Kellerman."

I melted into the crowd, not wanting to be questioned any further. I was jostled around for a moment, and then managed to work my feet into the frenzied running everyone else was in. After a few minutes, I got to the other side of the street and out of the crowd. I leaned against the wall of the nearest building, wondering what would have happened had I not told anyone about what I had recorded. The arc reactor would have given the antimatter enough power to wipe out all of New York. And not just the city. The state. Possibly. If my calculations were correct. Which they probably were.

I pushed off of the wall and started walking down the street. My house was some way away from Stark Tower, but I could still walk there before anyone thought anything was wrong. I looked back at the skyscraper, both wistful and sullen. Everyone at one point or another wanted to be like the Avengers. Some were completely fine with just meeting them in person and accept the fact that they would never be like them. And they just kicked out anyone who wasn't like them. Or who they didn't like.

I turned around to make sure I wasn't about to run into any lamps and suddenly froze in my tracks. A man with cold grey eyes and the darkest, spikiest hair I had ever seen stood leaning against a staff with a glowing gem on top of it. I stumbled back a few steps and the man turned his eyes on me. A scowl ripped through his face, sending me running.

I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I had to run. That man was the same man I had seen at the coffee shop, the same one I had followed and recorded.

The one that had tried blowing up Stark Tower.

I skidded to a stop when I saw the man at the street corner in front of me. There was no way he could have gotten to there before me, but he was there. He rolled his eyes as I started to back away again. The man vanished with a cloud of smoke. A hand was put over my mouth. I struggled as the man pulled me into an alley. He threw me to the ground near the far end of the alley.

"That was supposed to be a secret," he growled, "Now they know and-"

"Thousands of people are going to continue their lives," I said, "The Avengers will make sure of that."

The man kicked me in the chest. "Do _not _interrupt me, fool! I could end your puny life in an instant if I wanted to-"

"And you're not? That's not very villain-like."

The man kicked me again, this time in the face. He knelt down and grabbed the back of my head, painfully twisting my face up to look at him.

"Insolent blockhead," he spat, throwing my face back down against the concrete, "I might as well kill you, now that you point it out. You know too much."

I felt something metal touch my back, but then heard an odd _Twang! _The man cried out and pulled his cane away from me. I got to my hands and knees to see what was going on. Up on the roof of one of the buildings, Hawkeye was aiming his bow and arrow at the man.

"I would really recommend putting down that staff," he said.

I slowly started to get up. The man noticed however and immediately put his cane to my throat, the sharp crystal digging into my skin.

"I'll kill the boy," the man threatened, "I mean, I'd really be doing all of us a favor. He's too... unpredictable. And he doesn't even know how to use his power yet."

I glanced at the man sideway. He had to be joking, right?

"Just put down the staff," Hawkeye said, "Then no one will get hurt."

The man looked up at Hawkeye. "Hmm. He _is _an interesting puzzle piece. But I don't think so. You see, you'll take him for your side, and we just can't have that, now can we?"

I carefully put my hand near the man's staff as the two continued talking. I wasn't paying much attention to them; the black crystal on the end of the staff poking through my neck was a much higher concern for me. I gripped the wood right below the crystal and pulled the staff over my shoulder.

Surprised, the man stumbled, but kept his grip on the end of the staff. The crystal vibrated behind my head, but the fiery burst that escaped it only went and hit the brick wall behind me. The man shook the staff, trying to dislodge my hold on it. But, like him, I had a pretty good grip on his staff. I managed to lower it to next to my side, where I could hold the wood even better.

"Get him!" I shouted to Hawkeye, who was already jumping down from the roof of the building.

The man tugged at the staff again, pulling me a few inches closer to him and sliding my hands closer to the staff's gem. Another energy burst burned through the crystal. I winced as the fire started burning my hands and side. I was tempted to let go of the staff, but knew that would cost both Hawkeye's and my life. Hawkeye ripped the man away from the staff, simultaneously shutting off the fire surrounding the crystal and sending me to the ground. I grabbed my burned side, but stopped because of the pain sparking up my arm and back. Hawkeye and the man grappled while I started looking over the staff, trying to figure out how it worked. Was there a secret way of making fire burst out of it? Or was there-

My thoughts were interrupted by a flash of fire coming out of the tip of the staff. Maybe all I needed to do was think of it happening. I winced as I pushed myself upright and tried pointing the staff at the man. But the two of them were moving so fast I couldn't get a good aim on him.

"Clint! Duck!" I shouted.

He glanced over, and then followed my directions moments before a burst of fire shot from the staff and hit the man. He went flying and would have hit a car had he not disappeared out of nowhere. I fell back onto my knees, the staff falling next to me. How did I do that? How did I even know Hawkeye's real name?

Hawkeye was suddenly at my side, saying something, asking something probably. But there was ringing in my ears and I couldn't make out what he was saying. He picked up the staff, stared at it for a moment, and then pulled me to my feet. My head swam and I blinked dots out of my eyes. Hawkeye put my arm over his shoulders and began dragging me back toward Stark Tower.


	2. Technicalities When Testing

Chapter Two

I must have passed out on the way up the stairs, because the next thing I remembered was waking up in a white room with a woman I had never seen before leaning against the wall next to me. I bolted upright, but stopped when pain stretched through my side. The woman helped me lay back down.

"Hey, there. Theodore, right?" she said.

I nodded, though I didn't really like the name and preferred being called Ted. "What happened?"

"The guy that tried setting off the antimatter bomb attacked you," she told me, "From what I hear, you didn't go down without a fight."

It all came back to me. I looked at my hands, seeing them bandaged. I tried sitting up again, but the woman held me down.

"You really shouldn't get up yet," she told me.

"My parents are going to be home soon-" I started.

"We've already contacted them, they're on their way."

I settled back into the bed. "Who are you?"

"Natasha Romanoff," she told me, "I should probably tell the others that you're awake. Stay in bed."

I nodded and she walked off. After she closed the door, I sat up. My vision blurred. Probably something to do with the medication they gave me; three small burns weren't going to be able to effect me this much. Blinking, I looked around the room.

More infirmary-like beds lined the walls. A few windows let light into the room, but most of them had the blinds pulled up. A door was placed on either end of the room. And Tony Stark was walking into the room.

"And the dead rises," he said, a few others trailing behind him, "Heard you saved the Hawk's life."

"What?" I shook my head. "I didn't save anyone. And stop talking so loud."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm not talking loud at all."

"Then the room echoes."

"Just give him a break, Tony," Natasha said, "He only just woke up."

"I'm guessing the antimatter bomb was 'diffused'?" I asked.

"By yours truly," Stark said confidently. No, arrogantly.

"We did use the Penning Trap idea, though," someone else put in, "And I'm Dr. Banner, by the way. If you're going to stay here for a little while, you might as well know everyone."

"Stay here?" Stark and I said at the same time.

"I am not staying here," I told them, while Stark said, "He can't stay here."

"Why?" Dr. Banner inquired, glancing between us.

Stark and I pointed at each other. "Because of him! Hey! Stop it! Seriously! Stop copying me!"

"Whoa, guys, calm down," Natasha said, "There's no reason to get angry here."

Stark crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, sure. Science geeks as smart as Theodore over here come into _my_ industry building and start saying that I'm doing everything wrong _all _the time."

"It's Ted," I growled, "And I never said you were doing anything wrong."

"You were talking to me like I was a child, which you actually are-"

"Shut up!"

Stark and I looked over at Hawkeye, or Clint as I should say.

"Seriously," he muttered, "You two are giving me a headache. Can you just stop fighting for _one_ moment?"

We were silent.

"Thank you," he said, "Now, please, we are moving on."

There was a moment of strained silence.

"I've gotta go and make sure the arc reactor hasn't been tampered with, so I'll see you guys around," Stark said

"Tony-" Dr. Banner sighed.

"Seriously, if that thing falls, we all go boom," he told us, walking back toward the door, "I really doubt that you want that to happen."

The sound of the door closing echoed around the room in the silence that followed Stark's abrupt leave. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. Like Clint, I now had a headache.

"What, exactly, is his problem?" I muttered.

"He'll warm up to you," Natasha assured me, "He always does."

I lowered my hands. "Yeah, I guess."

"Are you alright?" Dr. Banner asked, "You seem a bit unnerved."

"How could I use that staff?" I wondered, "The guy who attacked me was using this staff and I could use it too."

"It could just be usable by anyone," Natasha said.

"The guy also said that Ted didn't know how to use his powers yet," Clint offered, "Doesn't exactly sound like him using the staff was just any mean feat."

I looked down at my hands, speechless. I knew they were all staring at me, expecting some sort of smart comeback, but I was wrung out. I couldn't have thought straight even if I wanted to. I mean, for lack of better words, I had used magic. _Real _magic. Unless there were other sciences at play.

The door opened and two men walked in, arguing. One, the darker skinned of the two, had an eyepatch over his left eye, which most likely was the same brown as his other eye. The other one had blonde hair and blue eyes.

"He isn't in a fit enough state to even get out of bed," the blonde man said, following the other as he marched toward me, "You can't seriously be considering this."

"I am, Captain," he growled, "And there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Captain America and Nicholas Fury, right?" I guessed.

They looked over at me. I waved.

"Yeah, I'm in the same room as you," I said.

"All apologies, Mr. Kellerman-" Captain America began.

"It's alright," I told him, "What was it that you needed?"

"That staff that Clint brought in with you," Fury said, "We need to find out what it is capable of."

"But...?"

"No one knows how to use it."

I considered what I could tell him. Or what I could do. I could just go with him and show him. I unwrapped the bandage on my hand. Smooth skin. No burns. I pulled off the other bandages as I hopped off the bed. Everyone started, expecting me to fall over as my feet touched the ground.

"I'm fine, really," I told them, "Now, Mr. Fury, let's go and find out what that staff can do."

"I did just tell you that no one can use it, right?" he replied in his growling tone of voice.

"Yes, you did," I said, "But I can use the staff, I already have."

The staff, now that I got to look at it a bit better, was made of some dark metal even stronger than titanium. Four spires reached above a dark blue crystal set at the top of the metal staff. The crystal itself was almost as jagged as the four serrated steeples, which let it pierce through almost anything. Along the handle of the staff were intricate engravings and symbols that I had never seen before.

I aimed the staff at the stuffed dummy and looked at Fury through the shield of bullet proof glass he was behind. He nodded and I let a fireball blaze from the end of my staff. The dummy was knocked off of its post and hit the wall, still on fire.

"Can you do put out the fire?" Fury wondered.

I shrugged and thought of water spraying from the tip of the crystal. Water came spewing out of the staff and the fire sizzled away.

"Anything else?" Fury said.

"Hey, I'm not used to being able to do things like this," I told him.

"You aren't?" he repeated.

"No, I'm not," I said, "For one thing, I've never seen this staff before, and for another I've never been able to-"

"Behind you!" Fury shouted.

I turned, seeing a metal humanoid running at me. I rolled to the side before it could plow me over. The machine turned to face me and ran at me again. This time I got ready to smack it with my staff. Three... two... one-

There was a resounding _SMACK! _as my staff made contact with the machine's head. It stopped for a moment, its face staring over its shoulder. It turned to face me with jerky movements. Its eyes glowed red.

"Oh, shoot," I muttered.

I dove out of the way as a long string of laser was shot right at where I had been standing. I scrambled to my feet as the machine blasted another bolt of energy at me. I ran around to its back stabbed at its neck, hoping that there was some sort of important mechanical hardware in the soft spot I had just severed. I pulled the staff out and got ready to attack again, but was suddenly thrown against one of the walls. I fell onto stomach, dazed as the machine stomped toward me.

I grabbed for my staff, getting onto my hands and knees. I aimed the crystal at the machine and a fireball was thrown at its chest. The machine flew back and hit the glass where Fury had been standing moments ago. I ran over before it could get up and stabbed it through its weakened armor. The glow in its eyes began to fade.

I heard the door behind me open and turned. Fury was standing there, staring at the dismantled machine. I pulled my staff out of it and walked over to him.

"I need to have a word with Stark," I said, trying to move around him.

He grabbed my arm. "That staff doesn't leave this room."

I put the rod in his open hand. "Then take it. I have to talk to Stark."

I continued walking. Steve was wearing his Captain America suit, but paused when he saw me.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Stark happened," I muttered.

"What?"

"A machine just attacked me. It had his logo on it."

"He wouldn't have meant it on purpose." He put a hand on my shoulder. "You're injured, you should-"

"I'm fine." Except for the bruises covering my entire back, a pulled muscle in my right arm, and a swollen eye from the beating I had received yesterday.

"You are not fine," he said, "You shouldn't have even gotten out of bed earlier."

"Look, I'll go get medical attention or whatever you want me to do," I replied, "but I need to talk to Stark about his malfunctioning robots."

"Oh, so you have seen it." The elevator in front of Steve and I framed Stark as he walked into the hall. "Do you mind telling me where it is? It seems to have wandered in the front door-"

"Yeah, I know where your machine is," I said icily, "It just attacked me while I had my back turned toward it."

"First off, it's not my machine," he said evenly, "Secondly, you really shouldn't let your back be turned long enough for a machine like that to get anywhere near you."

"If it isn't your machine," I growled, "then whose is it?"

"I honestly was hoping you'd explain that-"

"You think I'd build something like that? You think I'd make a crazy, homicidal robot?"

"Well, it is a bit up your alley. Suits your personality. Framing other people-"

"I wouldn't frame you. And either way, I've been in that room training the whole entire time. So sorry to burst your bubble, but _I _did not make that robot attack me in order to frame you."

He stared at me, as if sizing me up for the first time. Steve glanced between us as if we were a ticking time-bomb. My anger started to burn away as I thought of another possibility. It was definitely a lot more plausible than an Avenger sending a machine to kill me. I looked up at Stark.

"You have lots of computers here, right?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, looking as if he was wondering what I was up.

"Can I look at one?"

He blinked. "You just accused me of attempted murder and now you want to look at one of my computers?"

"I have anger management issues, yes," I grumbled, "Getting attacked by a giant machine with your logo on it is a surefire way of getting me angry. But I _might_ be able to find out who it was _if _I got my hands on a computer and hooked it up to the machine."

Stark eyed me carefully. "Jarvis? Can you get me a computer?"

An opening appeared in the wall next to us as the AI's voice flowed through speakers next to it. "Yes, Sir. A laptop of your prestige."

"And cables?"

"I am already on it."

Stark pulled a sleek laptop out from the opening and handed it to me. He then pulled out the cables I would need.

"Are you sure these would fit the machine?" I asked.

"Ah, young skeptic," he said, "There is a reason for why there is a saying that goes, 'One size fits all.'"

I frowned at him, still unsure, but walked back to the room where the machine was. Fury was having a few people inspect the machine, and rage boiled in his features when he saw Stark.

"What did I tell you about keeping your experiments inside your lab?"

"This isn't mine-" he began.

"It sure looks like it-" Fury started.

"Um, gentlemen," I said, already typing furiously on the laptop, the plug changing shape to accommodate the machine's outlet, "If I may say so myself, Stark could never have made anything like this. Well, perhaps he _could, _but I doubt that the inner workings would be laced with something called Tesseract. Also, the manufacturer has the name Sirakath. Does anyone know what that means?"

They all stared at me.

"I'll take that as an, 'I have no idea how to process what you just said.'" I turned the laptop to face them. "This _should _be popping up as regular code, but it looks to be in a whole entire other language. It isn't Russian, English, Latin, Scandinavian, German-"

"Theodore, we get it," Stark interrupted. He crouched next to me and pulled the laptop onto his knees. "How did you get this?"

"Well, I needed the plug in order to look at the code. It _was _encrypted, but it was pretty weak. I mean, they used an online encoder to encrypt their file before uploading it to the machine. Who does that? It's horrible to do if you want to keep your things away from other people."

"That is a pretty bad idea," Stark muttered, staring at the screen in front of him, "Almost anyone with an ounce of knowledge in the field of encryption can get through those types of firewalls."

He began typing on the laptop. Several windows popped up, but all I could tell was that he was trying to download the coding directly to Stark Industries and delete the original file all at once. My eyes widened as I thought of a possible reason for why this was so easy to do. I grabbed his wrists.

"Whoa! Stop!" I said.

He put his hands up as if I were a cop aiming a gun at his face. "What?"

"Sirakath must be the name for the guy who tried blowing up your tower," I theorized, "If that is the case, he would know better than to just use an encryption downloaded from the internet. Most likely he would use the downloaded encryption for someone like you or I to get through and download. Then he would use that file to take control of the mainframe of whatever computer the file is on. If the file is downloaded directly into the heart of Stark Industries, he'd be able to take you down from the inside out and shut down even the arc reactor."

Stark stared at me for a moment. "Good point." He began typing again, but seemed to be sending it somewhere else. "I'll just reroute a few things... put this here, that there... And voila! Done." He closed the laptop and handed it to me before standing up. "Keep the laptop if you want to. I'll be in my office."

"Whoa, wait just a moment, Mr. Stark," Fury said, "We need to discuss this a bit more in detail."

"Yeah, we can do that in my office," he replied, "Come along."

I shook my head and pushed off of the ground as he walked off. Steve and Fury stared at him.

"Might as well follow," I muttered.

They unfroze and started walking after Stark.

"So what's the Tesseract?" I asked.

Steve glanced at Fury, who shook his head. "Sorry, kid, that's classified."

"As always," I sighed, "I'll be in the lobby if you need me."


	3. The Reasons We Fight

Chapter Three

Sitting in one of the chairs in lobby of Stark Industries, I began hacking into Stark's camera grid using the computer he had given me. It wasn't easy, getting around without being detected, but I eventually was able to get eyes and ears on the room the Avengers were meeting in. I pulled a pair of earbuds out of my pocket and plugged them into the computer. Fury was pacing in front of a window spanning a whole entire wall while everyone else was sitting in chairs or leaning against concrete walls.

"-Need to make sure they can't use this technology against us," Fury said, "We can't risk the possibility that this could take any of you down."

Stark raised a hand. "Um, I'm sure that everyone agrees here when I say that we are glad that you are concerned for our safety, but our main goal is to protect the people. Tesseract technology isn't exactly the most people-friendly thing that's been introduced into 2014."

There it was again: the Tesseract. Something about the fact that there was "Tesseract technology," as Stark had called it, was putting Fury on edge. But why?

"This coding can only be Chitari," Dr. Banner said, "Or maybe a mix of Chitari and English. If that man _did _send the machine here, we should find out where he is, and why and how he got it in here."

"It went after the boy," Fury told them, turning to face him, "Did the man ever see him use the staff?"

"Once," Clint recalled, "Ted grabbed the staff and used it to get him away from me. Are you thinking that the man wants the boy?"

"He could have just wanted his staff back," Stark retorted, "I mean, Theodore can use it. I doubt that someone who is going against _us _wants the odds to be even worse."

"But Theodore _can _use magic," Natasha reminded him, "Someone like him could be the deciding factor in war."

"There is no such thing as magic," Stark argued, "The fire he produced was simply him activating the staff and making the molecules in the air vibrate fast enough."

"And the water?" Fury shot at him.

"Water?" he questioned.

"He made water out of nothing," he said.

"It's impossible to make something out of nothing. But water? He made water?"

"Yes, he did. And seeing how you have no explanation for that, we should probably say that what that boy does can only be considered magic and then move on."

Stark opened his mouth to argue, but a low beeping interrupted him. He looked over his shoulder.

"Yes, Jarvis?"

"I have just detected a server that has hacked Stark Industries' camera footage," the AI told him.

"Can you pinpoint the location?" Stark asked as he stood up, "I swear, if it is that guy again-"

"It is not," Jarvis told him, "It seems as though the computer being used is one of yours, Mr. Stark."

I closed the computer and shot to my feet. Keeping my head down, I marched toward the front doors. So Stark would find out that I had more knowledge in coding than he had thought at first. I heard the ding of the elevator as I passed through the doors. A familiar black limo was parked in front of the momentous building. I got in with only slight hesitation. The car started moving moments later.

Two people were in the car with me: a woman with my blue eyes and a man with my curly brown hair. I stared out of the window rather than looking at my parents.

"Theodore, son," my father said, gripping my shoulder, "What were you doing in Stark Industries?"

I winced and pried his hand off of my injured arm. "I was making sure New York didn't turn into a pile of nothing."

"What?" My mother's eyes bulged out almost as much as her swollen stomach. "What happened? And your face? Who did that?"

"Someone planted a bomb near Stark's arc reactor," I muttered, "I overheard the guy talking about it and told them about it. During the evacuation, the guy found me and attacked me. Hawkeye got rid of him and brought me to Stark Industries again. I've been talking with them ever since."

"And that laptop?" my father interrogated, "Where did you get it?"

I hesitated. My parents were touchy about the things Tony Stark made. But my silence answered for me.

"It was Stark's?" he guessed.

I nodded.

"Let me see it," he demanded.

"No."

"No?"

"He gave it to _me. _It's mine. You aren't going to throw it away."

"Theodore-"

"Don't call me that. I hate that name."

"Ted, Stark makes chaos, he doesn't make anything that keeps peace-"

"Stark and the Avengers fought off a whole bunch of aliens two years ago. Despite common beliefs, they _are _a force of good."

"Stark was also the reason the aliens attacked New York," Mother told me.

I pulled the laptop further away from them. "Yeah, but they didn't know that Loki was planning to destroy the world. And either way, you both want me to be an engineer when I grow up, right? I can look at how Stark made this and then make my own designs for future computers."

Although I had no thoughts in the world of dismantling Stark's computer, the thought that I would dismantle it seemed to calm both of them. I sunk back into my seat and stared out of the window forlornly. I wanted more than anything to be back at Stark Tower, but I doubted that they would let me help them anymore than I already had. And my parents would never let me go near that skyscraper ever again. Not as if they had approved of me going there in the first place.

The car stopped in front of a mansion that had just stepped out of the medieval ages. The courtyard was ringed with arches and columns supporting balconies overlooking the garden. The actual mansion rose three stories high in an immense lowercase N. At each corner, there was a circular tower, two of which held bedrooms. I barely looked back at my parents before I strode toward the far right tower. If you haven't noticed by now, I don't really like my parents. And I really doubt that they like me.

The inside of the mansion looked like what you would think it looks like: a glass chandelier over the ridiculously long kitchen table, rugs covering wooden floor, stone walls concealed by a vast amount of paintings of from who knows where. My tower had none of that. No paintings, no old medieval rugs, nothing that resembles the rest of the mansion. I had been able to design a thumbprint analyzer, so only me or people I want to come into my room could go in. Computers that I had invented or was in the middle of inventing were lining the walls. I even had one that came out of the wall near my bed. I was nowhere near holographic imagery like Stark, but I was pretty confident that my computers were even faster than the Apple Macintoshes.

I plopped down on my bed, a twin-sized cot that could unfold from off of the wall. I had no idea what I was going to do now. After a moment, I sat up and opened up the laptop Stark had given me. Maybe he didn't delete the document that contained the track of what came and went through the computer. I was distracted by the camera footage, however, and scrambled to put in my headphones. Fury was still pacing in Stark's office, but he was talking to someone on the phone.

"I want to get everything there is to know about this Theodore Kellerman," he demanded, "I want to know where he went to school, who his parents are, where he learned how to hack into military grade computers, hell, I want to know what science projects he did in his seventh grade. Just find me everything you can on a Theodore D. Kellerman."

Fury clipped his phone shut. He must have been pretty angry, because he pulled out his pistol and shot the camera I was looking through. For a while, I just sat there, listening to static. I jumped when someone knocked on my door. Closing the window, I got up and carefully walked through the mass of cords to the door. I opened it but let my body block everything that could be seen of my room.

"Yeah?" I said, looking at one of the servants my parents had hired. I liked him the most out of all of them; he had been the one that had been there when my parents were out on business trips. If anything, he was more of a father than my biological one.

"Your dinner, Sir Ted," he told me.

"You don't need to call me 'Sir,' but thanks," I said.

"You're welcome, Ted," he replied.

I brought the plate of food to my bed and ate the steak while checking out what the computer could do. It had only been a few minutes when the program I had running was shut down. I could only guess that someone was trying to hack into the computer. I pulled up the console and started putting up more firewalls to keep whoever it was out of the system. Still, the hacker got through my lines of code and made a Skype window pop up. Who was on the screen? Tony Stark.

"Stark?" I asked, "What are you doing? And what is that noise? Don't tell me you're-"

"In my Iron Man suit?" he finished, "Why yes, yes I am in my Iron Man suit. And yes, I did hack you while flying over twenty thousand feet in the air. Not all that hard when you're talking about your own computer." He looked over my shoulder. "What is that? Behind you, on the desk?"

I glanced back at it and was about to answer, but shook my head and looked back at him. "Doesn't matter. You can't come here."

"Why can't I?" he shot at me.

"Because my parents will literally _kill _you," I growled, "You remember a guy called Hammer, right? I believe they work for him."

"Wait. Your parents work for Hammer?"

"At least, they used to. I mean, Hammer is still in SHIELD custody, so they don't work directly for him, but still for the manufacturer."

"Okay, this is not good."

"Yeah. And they sort of have a grudge against you for taking him down all those years ago."

"What about you? Is that why you hate me?"

"What? No. I hate my parents. They sell weapons to the terrorists who kill children in Afghanistan. Why would I like what they do?"

"Just making sure." He paused. "Why did you hack my cameras?"

"One lesson to learn about kids nowadays, Stark, is that when you say they can't do anything, they will more than likely try even harder to achieve their goal."

"Point taken. You do know that you're going to have to come back to Stark Industries, though, right?"

"You're letting me come back?"

"Well, whoever this guy is that attacked you, he really seems to be trying to find you, so... Yeah, you can come back."

"Now, um, that's great and all, but my parents still aren't going to let me go over to your skyscraper anytime soon."

"Yeah, I figured. We'll get you out of there, don't worry about it."

"I'm not worrying."

"Yeah, sure. One last question, though."

"Ask away."

"Why do you hate your parents? Besides the fact that they work for Hammer?"

I stared at him, fighting myself on whether or not to answer. At last, I said, "I'll see you in a little while."

I closed my communications with him. After a moment, I sighed and leaned back against the wall. That had to be the most civilized discussion I had had with Tony Stark.

I waited about a week for something to happen. I had been confined to my room for even setting foot in Stark Industries, and I didn't have school like most kids my age did, so I pretty much just used the time I had to explore my new Stark Industries computer and try finishing the computers I had started making. I had been fitting a custom motherboard into one of my computers when a knock on my door near made me push the whole thing off my desk. Taking a second to be thankful that I had grabbed the other side of the computer, I stood up. Another knock echoed through my room. I pulled open the door.

"Yeah, what-" I froze when I saw Fury standing outside my door. "Hey, Fury, about the other day-"

Fury's glare made me stop talking. He beckoned behind him and a line of five people went through my door and started picking up my things.

"Whoa, wait a moment!" One of the men started unscrewing the touchscreen computer I had built into the wall. "Hey! Be careful with that! It's fragile!" Another person was grabbing all of my computers and loading them onto a floating Stark Industries flatbed trolley. I turned back to Fury. "What are you doing with all my stuff!?"

"Don't worry, kid," Fury told me, "They're all engineers, they know how to handle these things."

"But you can't just take all my things!" I waved a hand across all of the things the men were packing up. "It's my life's work."

"That's why you're coming back with us to Stark Tower."

I took a deep breath. "Maybe next time you could tell me that _before _your men start digging around my room for all of my things."

"We aren't taking everything," one of them said, "And for your information, I'm a woman, not a man."

"Theodore!"

I pushed passed Fury and hurried down the stairs to where my mother was anxiously waiting for me. Fury followed me down the stairs, stopping when he saw my mother.

"Mom, this is Nicholas Fury," I said, "Fury, would you kindly explain what you are doing to my mother."

He glared at me for a moment and then turned to look at my mother. "As head of the SHIELD organization, I believe your son and his work could be used to help stop villains who threaten the wellbeing of people around the globe-"

I heard a loud smash from upstairs and cursed under my breath. "I'll be up there helping them clean up whatever just fell."

I raced back up the stairs and into my room, seeing a group of broken beakers and glass bottles. It could have been worse, really, but I still rather liked the goblets that I had. The guy who had dropped them started picking up the shards and putting them in a plastic bag. The room seemed to be in mass chaos, but my things were starting to get into boxes and were being tied down for the trip to Stark Tower. I pinched the bridge of my nose and walked down the stairs again, but this time passed Fury and my mother, who was now joined by my father, and walked out into the courtyard. I could see the van and other government vehicles waiting for Fury and I down in the parking lot. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, knowing that once I left, I probably wouldn't be coming back. I was fine with that.

"He isn't going to the murderer's home!" I heard my father shout at Fury.

I turned around. The two of them were marching toward me. I shifted uncertainly.

"Tony Stark is not a murderer," Fury told him, "I can understand the confusion, but he does not kill innocent people-"

"But he leads to their deaths!" my father hissed, "My son isn't going anywhere near that psychopath!"

"Dad-" I began.

"Nothing from you," he snapped, "For all your life, you've had this dream of-"

"Dad, it's more than that, and you know it," I muttered, "I can help the Avengers, at the very least, and I can help everyone else involved also, which in turn means you and Mom and-"

"Don't bring your mother into this-"

"Dad, it's my life! And they're asking _me, _not you. It's my decision. And plus they're already taking my stuff."

"If I have to, I will-"

"You'll what? Use your Hammer technology on me to brainwash me into staying. You know you can't do that. And if you do keep me here, it'll be practically the equivalent of enslavement on my end, and enslaving people is against the law."

My father glared at me. Without another word, he turned around and stormed back into the house. I shook my head and turned back to a bewildered Fury.

"Sorry, my dad is always like that about Stark Industries," I said, "And, um, you might want to duck."

"Excuse me?" he growled.

I looked over his shoulder. "There is a football traveling over thirty miles an hour about to hit your head, so I would recommend crouching or doing something of the like."

He looked at where I was looking and then ducked as a football skimmed his head and rammed into my stomach. The wind knocked out of me, I skidded across the lawn and hit my back against a nearby arch. I sat there for a few minutes, and then stood up, staring at the long track I had created in the lawn.

"Are you alright over there?" Fury called to me.

I put a thumbs up in the air.

"Good." He walked over to me. "What is that thing?"

"It's a project I made for my seventh grade science fair."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, this football has a levitation device in it that simultaneously propels it through the air while keeping it above ground. It was supposed to circle the world in less than a year, but I think today is when I sent it off."

He nodded and motioned toward the cars parked nearby. "Why don't you brush all that dirt off of you and then get into one of the cars?"

"Er, right, I'll meet you in there I guess."

In a little under forty minutes, I was in an elevator, going up to see if I could help with Stark's most recent invention. I still had the football with me, but everything else was being put into one of the vacant labs. When the elevator slid to a stop and the doors glided to the side, I saw Stark with a blowtorch in his hands and a piece of metal on the workbench in front of him. Everywhere the eye could see, there was an invention. It looked a lot like what my room had looked like before Fury's men had taken everything out. Stark looked up when I walked in.

"Hey, Theodore," he said.

"Hey." I paused for a moment. "Heads up."

I tossed the football to him. He caught it, but nearly dropped it from the surprise of how heavy it was.

"Jeez, what's in this thing?" he asked, tapping it with the bottom of his blowtorch.

"Just a supercomputer, some wires, and some extra cushioning in case it fell out of the sky," I said wryly.

"It's a supercomputer?" he repeated, looking it over, "Let me guess, it's supposed to circle Earth and collect data or something?"

"Circling Earth, yes. Collect data, not so much."

"You watch too much Warehouse 13."

I chuckled. "Perhaps." I paused again. "You can keep it. Think of it as a gift preluding to me apologizing for freaking out the other day."

"Ah, that's sweet," he said, only a bit mockingly, "No one has ever given me a supercomputer in a football before."

"I'm not surprised."

He grinned. "Hey, can you come over here and do something for me?"

"Sure."

I walked over to his workbench, seeing the schematics of a car he was working on.

"On that blueprint," Stark said, "how many circles are there? Besides the tires."

I looked at it for a moment. "Eight. Four on each side."

"That's what I thought." He glanced at me, putting down his blowtorch. "You know, you didn't exactly answer my one question last time we talked."

I stiffened as I remembered what question he was talking about. "It doesn't really matter, does it? I mean-"

"Look, I don't think you should keep secrets from us," he told me, "If something is going on, then we should know about it."

"They don't care about me, I don't care about them," I said harshly, "It's nothing else, end of story."

"Ted-"

"I just – I don't want to go back there. I mean, I do, but not because of my parents. They care more about money than they do for the son they gave birth to. The _only _reason I'd go back there is to help raise my unborn brother or sister. Because I don't want them to be like me. I don't want them to be raised by butlers and servants and not know what it feels like to have a family that cares. Because that's what my parents did. They left all the time, handed me to their hired servants, and never talked to me for almost five years of my life. I hate them for it, I absolutely detest them for what they do on a daily basis. And I found out they worked for Hammer when I was five. I found out what Hammer made, what he was doing, at age seven. They didn't even have the decency to tell me anything about what they did until I was eight, at which time, I already knew everything. And they didn't care about what I thought on the subject. Just about the money it was bringing in."

Stark opened and closed his mouth as if he had no idea of what to say. I sat down with my back against the wall. One of Stark's inventions came and hit my shoe. I waved a hand at it.

"No, I don't need anything, go away," I muttered.

I felt a bit guilty when it hung its serving arm as if it was its head. It rolled away as Stark sat down next to me after a moment.

"Okay, kid," he said, "I'll tell you this now – most of us Avengers, we've been hurt in our lives and that is why we fight for good; we don't want it to happen to other people. Steve used to be bullied as a kid, before he became a super-soldier for the military; Dr. Banner, he accidentally irradiated himself and got turned into the Hulk; Clint and Natasha were actually sent to assassinate each other when they were both spies."

"What about you?" I said quietly.

"Me?" He thought for a moment. "That's a bit hard to explain."

I looked down at the ground, a sudden urgency to tell him about my parents making me bold. "My parents, they go on business trips every other week, 'trying' to get back by Friday every time they leave. Seeing how today is Sunday, they should be leaving home for another one just about..." I looked at my watch. "Now." I glanced back up at Stark, suddenly bitter. "So. What do you think of my life story? How do you want to make fun of me for it?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I don't want to make fun of you for that."

I looked away from him, my anger brittle and crumbling. "Sorry, it's just... I'm not used to people knowing much about that part of my life and not saying anything ostracizing about the fact."

Stark sipped at his whiskey. "Kid, I had a piece of shrapnel in my chest, threatening to kill me at any moment. And I live with a bunch of children who like playing with sharp knives and bow and arrows, who can't stand the fact that I need a protective suit in order to be part of the Avengers." He tapped the icon on his shirt. "I used to have a miniature arc reactor in my chest. It had an electromagnet to make sure the piece of shrapnel didn't kill me. It also powered most of my suits."

"So if the reactor powers your suits, how do you use them?"

"Oh, that's easy, I just redesigned the suit with an arc reactor in it."

I nodded. That seemed reasonable.

"But your parents, they neglect you?"

I nodded again. "But you can't say that it's illegal or anything, because they have servants taking care of me. Some officials will argue the fact that it is wrong, but they can't do anything about it."

"And your mom is pregnant?"

"Yeah."

Stark dragged a hand over his face. "Wow. No wonder you snapped at me last week." He stood up and offered me a hand. "Come on, let's get these thoughts out of our head. You want a drink? I've got Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, all that good stuff."

I gave him a small smile, but couldn't shake off the feeling of vulnerability telling someone about my personal life gave me. Stark handed me a glass of Coke and poured himself some scotch. We leaned back against the wall and stood in silence for a while.

"So, um," I said, "you haven't told me why you joined the Avengers. I mean, you explained everyone else, but not yourself."

He took a sip of his scotch. "For the first part of my life, I practically didn't have a father. He was never there for me, never even told me he loved me. When he and my mother were killed in a car accident, this-" Stark beckoned around the room. "-fell into my lap. Which is when I became the youngest CEO of a Fortune Five Hundred company. Then Obadiah came in and-"

"He betrayed you," I remembered, "Nearly got you killed."

He was silent for a moment. "Yeah."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted. It was all over the news."

"You shouldn't be sorry for something that has done no harm." He took another sip of his scotch. "Now, something like hitting me over the head with a frying pan? That's a different story."

I chuckled a bit, but saw someone else and stopped. "Dr. Banner? What is it that you need?"

"I just need to confer with Tony about something I found, but I believe Clint needed some help with something down in the training levels."

I got the message: they had something to talk about that was either just between the Avengers or only the two of them. I shrugged and finished my glass of Coke.

"I'll see you later," I told Stark, walking toward the elevator, "See if I can help you with any of your projects."

He nodded to me as the doors shut in front of me.

"Training levels," I told the elevator. Seriously, everything Stark made had to have voice recognition software. I barely even felt the jolt of the elevator moving down a few levels, but frowned when the lift stopped. Fury walked into the elevator and told it where he was going. He glanced at me, but said nothing. I looked away from him. "Fury."

"Kellerman. Or should I saw Da Vinci?"

I looked back up at him, alarm spreading through me. The look on his face made me wish I wasn't who I was.

"Elevator, would you kindly stop right where we are and not open the doors?"


	4. Confessions

Chapter Four

"So you've been lying to us the whole entire time?" Fury growled.

"No, I haven't," I said hurriedly, "And Da Vinci is only my middle name, it is very possible that I am not the guy you think-"

"Oh, I _think _that I am very right in saying that you have hacked us before. Only Da Vinci would be able to. And SHIELD was left with a note on a computer screen that said, 'Da Vinci' on it."

I gulped. What could I say? Even though I hacked Stark Industries, I couldn't hack SHIELD? Everyone knew that Stark had put up more firewalls around his systems than even the most paranoid of people.

"You are Da Vinci, are you not?" Fury barked.

I nodded, not wanting to anger him further. He roughly turned me around and pushed me against the wall, pulling my arms behind my back and slapping a pair of handcuffs on my wrists.

"Never thought I'd have to use these on a potential Avenger before," he snarled, "Elevator, take us to the interrogation rooms."

The elevator started moving again. Fury pried me off of the wall, keeping a tight hand on one of my arms. When the door dinged open, Fury pulled me through the dark hallway it led to. Romanoff was standing in front of one of the doors and looked up when we walked past. She raised an eyebrow, but Fury shot her a harsh stare to quiet her. She turned away and tapped something in her ear as Fury got me moving faster. Soon I was tossed into a room with only a desk and two chairs. Cliché, yes, but we were talking about the Avengers here.

The first thing I did was get my hand out in front of me by pulling my arms under my legs. Then I sat down at the table and waited. And waited. And waited. The handcuffs I had on were nothing like any of the ones I had seen. There were multiple cogs and layers of what seemed like pure plasma in between each cog. I guessed that if I tried taking the handcuffs off, I would blow up.

The door suddenly slammed open, but I didn't jumped. Instead, I asked, "What are these restraints made out of?"

Fury slid into the seat in front of me, glowering down at me and the folder in his hands. "You don't get to ask questions here, Mr. Kellerman. Now, would you please confess to hacking into SHIELD two years ago?"

I sighed. "True, I hacked into the network. But I didn't have a choice. He would have killed me."

Fury raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me? Are you trying to make up excuses for shutting down our whole base of commands for more than a month?"

I leaned back in my chair, saying nothing.

"Now, I don't know what planet you are from," Fury growled, "but here, on Earth, taking down the base of commands that helped defeat an alien invasion is probably _more _than a federal crime." He pulled a picture of one of my computers out of the folder and slid it over to me. "See that logo? That's the logo that appeared on all of our computers, Da Vinci. It's on the side of your machine." He pulled out another photo, this one of a helicarrier falling out of the sky. "That is what happened moments later. Countless people died. Countless _innocent _people died. At your hands."

I looked away from him.

The door suddenly opened, making me look up at Stark. He didn't even look at me until he pulled up another chair and sat down.

"Stark, get out of here," Fury ordered, "I'm interrogating him, not you."

"Just a moment, One Eye," he muttered, "Ted, you said that he would have killed you. Who was he? What was he doing?"

I shook my head. "I – I can't tell."

"He's making this up, Stark, now get out of here," Fury snapped.

"Be patient," he said, "Why can't you tell anyone about it?"

Uncertainly, I pushed up my sleeve and showed him the bottom of my forearm. I poked a bit of skin, making a low light glow about an inch from where I had my finger. Stark grabbed my arm and put his thumb over the spot that had lit up. I winced and jerked my arm away from him.

"He put a microchip into your arm?" he questioned.

I nodded, pushing my sleeve down again. "And if I touch it long enough, it will kill me."

They were silent.

Fury stood up and slammed his hands down on the table. "Microchips can't kill people-"

"A man like him can track me down years before you even get a whiff of my existence. You really think he would just let me go around telling everyone about who he is and what he looks like? And microchips _can_ kill people, just ask Stark."

Fury glared at me, and then turned to stare at Stark.

"It is possible," he said, "If the chip was equipped with anything that can kill a regular person, then yes, Ted would be telling the truth."

Fury practically growled in anger as he marched out of the door.

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Stark demanded, "We would've-"

"Put me in here and slapped on some handcuffs just for extra measure," I muttered, "This was going to happen anyways. I just... I didn't want all of you to think that I was some mass murderer who kills people for fun. Because I don't! The guy had a gun against my head, I couldn't do anything."

Stark narrowed his eyes on me. "It wasn't you, was it?"

"What? It _was _me, I shut down SHIELD."

"No, I meant that it wasn't you he had a gun on."

I looked at the ground.

"Who-"

"She's dead, alright. I did everything the scumbag told me to do, but he killed her anyways."

"She?"

"He brought in my girlfriend. Sammy Rickonson."

Stark was silent.

"He _said _he was going to let her go, but he killed her when he had everything he wanted. Which was to shut down SHIELD."

He looked across the room and then tapped something that was in his ear, some earpiece that was letting him listen to what other people were saying. He sighed. "Natasha wants to know why you're telling us this since you said that you couldn't say anything earlier."

"As long as I don't tell you his name or what he looks like," I told him, "I'm fine." I pointed to another spot on my neck, a green light flickering into existence. "This one can tell what I am saying with the vibrations going through my voice box. The one in my arm can deal a lethal dose of amphetamine."

"Ampheta-what?"

"Amphetamine. It's commonly used with kids who have ADHD, but in high doses... Reports say that delusions, psychosis, and paranoia are common, as well as loss of appetite, hallucinations, and hyperthermia. Going into a coma is also very possible with extremely high doses. Some people say that it is rarely fatal, but the guy said he 'improved' the drug."

"How big of a dose is it again?"

I shrugged. "There's a tube that is a finger's width and length stuck in my arm. That's all I know about how much is in there."

"Okay, um, just hang tight, alright? We'll see what we can do in the meantime."

"Yeah, sure."

I rested my head on my hands. I hated thinking about my past. It was horrid, and left my mind scrambling for any subject but it. Alas, I would never be able to focus on anything else this time. The events of that day played across my eyes, the man's face just as cold and gruesome as it had been two years ago. I shuddered. Just thinking about him was enough to make me lose my wits. Pain suddenly spiked up my right arm and I put my hands down. Stupid microchip. I exhaled and leaned back, closing my eyes. My head started throbbing from not eating in a while, but I tried ignoring it.

When I noticed that I was starting to nod off, I jerked upright in my chair. God, it was boring to just sit in a chair with handcuffs on my wrists. I stood up and started walking in circles to stay awake. I felt like I was making a hole in the ground after about half an hour. And I was still about to fall asleep. I fell back into the chair I had been sitting in earlier. Or maybe it was the one Fury had been in. I put my elbows on the table and rubbed my temples. I started sliding...

The chair fell sideways and I was suddenly saying hello to the ground. I didn't move, though. I was way too tired. And my ears were ringing. Someone rushed into the room and pushed me onto my back. Curly red hair... Green eyes... She patted my face, but I didn't do anything. She shouted something. The roaring in my ears cut off what she was saying. My eyes closed-

_Barron had my arms tied down on a chair. I was barely gripping onto consciousness after the beating I had just gotten. Blood was blurring my vision, but I could tell that Barron had something in his hands. Something long and thin. I struggled against my bonds. How could he have found it? I had said nothing! Nothing at all! And he had still found it. I heard him chuckle before electricity surged through me and-_

I shot upright. My head swam and I nearly passed out again, but someone helped me lie back down. My vision cleared. I wasn't in the cell anymore, but I was in a hospital. One of my wrists was shackled to the bed and the other was wrapped in bandages. Dr. Banner was standing next to me.

"Hey there," he greeted, "How are you feeling?"

"Where am I?" I said thickly, "And what happened?"

"Well, you blacked out earlier." Dr. Banner walked over to the medical monitor to check my vitals. "Natasha was there when it happened, and she rushed you to here, to Temple's Hospital. About half of the doctors here are part of SHIELD in some way, and almost immediately found out that the amphetamines had entered your bloodstream. But there was another drug compound, one they hadn't ever seen before. I guess that was the improvement the guy made?"

I shrugged and stared at my bandaged arm. I tried moving my fingers, but they barely moved. I looked back up at Dr. Banner, but he answered my question before I could even open my mouth.

"They preformed surgery on your arm and got the chip and drug cache out of you. They _were _going to get the one you said was in your neck out also, but you went into cardiac arrest and pretty much died. They were barely able to bring you back."

I put my arm down. "That's why my chest hurts."

"How badly?" he asked, suddenly worried.

I shrugged again.

"Like a knife or a dull throb?"

"Dull throb."

"Okay, that should be normal."

I looked through the glass that separated the hospital's halls from my room. I could see Natasha and Clint standing close to my door and Fury having a quiet argument with Steve and Tony.

"Why are you in here, but not them?" I wondered.

"I _am _a doctor," he said.

"I thought you were a physicist."

He grinned. "I am. But my title still says doctor, so they let me in here."

"Hmm." I closed my eyes for a moment. "Should I be this tired?"

"You did just have a lethal dose of two different drugs and went into cardiac arrest. It's makes sense that you are tired."

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes again. I looked out into the hall again, seeing Steve and Tony following Fury toward the room I was in. Fury beckoned to Clint and Natasha and they all came in.

"Mr. Kellerman," Fury said with a slight nod, "It's good to see you awake."

"Yeah, sure," I mumbled, "It's nice to get that thing out of me."

"Can you tell us the name of the man who put the chip in you?" Fury wondered.

"Mmm... Maybe after I take a nap or-"

"Theodore."

I glared at him. "Only my parents call me that. Don't call me that." I sighed and looked away from him. "Sirakath. His name was Sirakath."

"Where have I heard that before?" Stark asked.

"Sirakath was the name of the man who sent the drone to attack Ted," Natasha told him, "And also the man who attacked him in that alley near Stark Tower?" She looked at me.

I nodded. "I would never forget his face."

"Oh, can we _please _get the handcuff off of his wrist?" Stark grumbled.

Fury scowled. "He hacked into SHIELD and-"

"Shut it down for a month," he said, "I've dealt with worse."

"Like what?"

"Nearly dying multiple times. Nearly having my suits taken away from me."

"Hundreds of men died-"

"Because someone kidnapped the kid and forced him to hack into SHIELD. With his girlfriend at gunpoint."

"He still did it."

I raised my chained hand as high as I could. "Hey, I understand that you are angry, but you literally just said that I should have let Sirakath kill my girlfriend and me, or wait until he brought a mother and her child into the room and shoot the child first."

Everyone was silent. I put my hand down and looked away from them. Agitation, I thought. Must be part of the withdrawal or something. I fought my eyes as they fluttered closed.

"Ted? Ted? Oh, and he's gone again."


	5. You Said What?

**Author's Notes: Sorry, guys; I haven't been able to work much on this piece for over a week... Anyways, this one is shorter than the other chapters, but it has a few key points in it.**

Chapter Five

I came in and out of consciousness, barely talking for longer than I had the first time. Fury, after me coming to for the fourth time in a row, took the handcuff off of my wrist. He had started to say something about someone watching me, but I had zoned out and fallen asleep in the middle of one of his sentences. After almost a week and a half, I stopped blacking out and was deemed able to go back to Stark Tower. The doctors, however, had seemed a bit reluctant and told me that I should probably stay in bed for the rest of the day and at least half of tomorrow. I was still tired as hell, though, and slept through the ride there. Clint shook my shoulder when we got to the front door of Stark Tower.

I stepped out of the car clutching my still-bandaged arm. Clint led me to the elevator and up to the party deck, where everyone else was waiting for us.

"Welcome back, Sir Kellerman," Jarvis said as I walked out of the elevator.

"Hey, Jarvis," I returned. I would have told him not to call me 'Sir,' had I not just woken up in the car.

Stark clapped me on the back. "And he's walking already. Natasha, I believe you owe me fifty dollars."

She rolled her eyes and started digging through her pockets for some money.

"Did you seriously put a bet on me being able to walk and not fall over?" I chuckled.

"Yes," he said bluntly, "Yes, we did."

I shook my head as I sat down in one of the chairs around the table. "Is there somewhere I can crash for a few hours? Because I am pretty much dead."

Stark tried talking through whatever alcohol he was drinking and put a hand up as if to stop me. "Wait a moment. There's one question I think all of us want to ask you."

I sighed. "More questions?"

"Just one," Stark said, "Do you want to be an Avenger?"

I stared at him, and then looked at all of the others. "You want me to be an Avenger?"

"It would be nice to have someone like you around," Dr. Banner told me, "And you already know practically all of our secrets."

I thought about it for a minute. An Avenger. I would most definitely get kicked out of my parents' house if I said yes, which meant that I wouldn't be able to help raise my brother or sister. But they didn't have to know, right?

"Sure," I said, "As long as no one outside of SHIELD finds out it is me."

"You want a _secret_ identity?" Steve questioned.

I nodded. "My parents are about to have another kid and they don't exactly have the best parenting skills, so I'd rather be there to help my brother or sister through their life than be kicked out of the house."

"Why would you be kicked out?" Clint asked.

"My family is known for being the people who made the government question whether or not you all should be held responsible for the damages of the Battle of New York. Overall, they really hate you all, and if I publicly became a new Avenger, they'd most likely kick me out."

"I think we can keep it secret," Dr. Banner assured me, "After all, no one really knows about my true identity."

"Awesome," I said, "Now, um, a place for me to crash?"

"Oh, right!" Stark stood up from where he had just sat down. "Follow me, I can take you to your room."

I followed him back to the elevator. We were quiet for a while.

"So," he said, "how's the arm?"

I tried moving my fingers. All of them moved, except for my index finger. "Better than before." I frowned. "You're serious, though, about me being an Avenger?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"It's just... Fury isn't going to like the idea, is he?"

Stark shook his head. "No, he won't like it. But then again, _we _are the Avengers, not him."

We stepped out of the elevator.

"And none of you are mad about the fact that I shut down SHIELD?"

"Ted, we know that you never had a choice about bringing SHIELD down for a few weeks. Fury, he's a strange case, he holds grudges. But we aren't Fury. We can understand what kind of position you were in."

Stark pushed open one of the many doors, showing me an oversized bed, a large plasma screen TV, and a long coffee table with a holographic top. The opposite wall had a gorgeous view over New York City. Stark had even put in a soda machine for me.

"Whoa. Thanks, Stark."

"Tony," he said, "Call me Tony."

"Er, right... Tony."

He smirked at me. "You should get some sleep. You look like you're about to fall over again. And there's a bunch of clothes in the closet over there." He pointed to the right, where there was a door that nearly blended in with the wall.

I nodded silently and walked into the room. I turned back to look at him. "Thanks, Tony, for everything. I don't think anyone's done anything like this for me before."

"Well, not everyone is a billionaire," he said, "But, um, can I tell the others about what you told me? Just so that they're up to speed."

"Yeah, sure. I'll talk to you later."

I watched him walk off before falling back on the bed. An Avenger. They wanted me to be an Avenger. But why? All I could do was play around with a computer and make a staff glow real bright. I doubted that I could actually do anything in battle. The question puzzled me until I drifted off to sleep.

"Mr. Kellerman, it is almost time for dinner."

I shot up in bed, Jarvis's voice startling me. "What did you say?"

"It is almost time for dinner in the dining hall," he said, "If you would like to sleep in, I will tell the Avengers that you are skipping."

"No, that's alright, " I told him, "I'm starving."

I stood up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I felt a bit better than I had been all week. I wasn't amazingly tired, though my arm throbbed from being slept on. I walked out of the room and into the elevator. I got out at the dining hall as Jarvis had told me. Apparently Tony had been picked for making food, but he had ordered Chinese instead. He was also telling everyone about my parents. I didn't make my appearance public, but a Dr. Banner and Clint both saw me pointed me out to Stark. He looked over his shoulder, said, "Hi." and went back to the story. He was just winding down and telling everyone about how my mom was pregnant with another kid. I was piling a bit of everything onto a plate when he was explaining my plan for making sure my sibling wasn't as anti-family as me. Midway through a sentence, Tony looked over at me, seeing me stuffing tons of food into my mouth. He blinked, losing his trail of thought.

I swallowed the massive amount of lo mein. "What? I'm starving and there's food."

They all burst out laughing. I just hoped they were laughing at Tony's face and not mine. Still, I joined in after a moment.

"Now, uh, where was I?" Tony asked.

"Ted is about to get a brother or sister," Clint reminded him.

"Right. Ted doesn't want his sibling to be all I-hate-family, so he wants to be there for him, or her, if the baby is a girl."

"Is that all?" Natasha said.

"Yes," Tony and I told her.

"When, exactly, did you tell Tony about this?" Dr. Banner wondered.

"That's what we were talking about before you interrupted us a week or so ago," Tony said. He turned to look at me, a frown creasing his brow. "How did you find that plate?"

"Hmm?" I looked up from my food.

"How did you find that plate?" he repeated.

"What do you mean?" I pointed at the cabinets surrounding the fridge. "It's not as if you don't have any cupboards."

"Yeah, but..." He shook his head. "Never mind. Food, everyone. Eat. Have whatever, I can get more if we run out."

Everyone else began getting their portions of Chinese food. There was a long silence after everyone was sitting down at the table. Tony glanced at me every now and then, as did a few of the others, but I didn't exactly mind. I knew that, after the recent events and hearing what Tony had told him, everyone was trying to digest it all.

"So, um, have you told anyone else about this stuff?" Dr. Banner wondered.

I took a bit of time swallowing my most recent bite. "I've talked about it with two other people."

Steve looked at me curiously. "Who?"

"One of the butlers at my parent's mansion and... and Sammy."

There was more silence. I poked at the remaining food on my plate, not all that hungry anymore. I still managed to shovel a bit more food into my mouth.

"Where would your parents be right now?" Natasha asked.

I glanced at my watch. "They're in France."

"How do you know?" Clint's eyes flickered to my watch for not even half of a second.

Shaking my head, I took it off and threw it to him. He stared at the small red dot that was blinking near a title that read FRANCE.

"How does this work?"

"Right now, it is getting transmissions from NASA's satellites. I used to get the info from beacons in the different countries, but then one got mauled by a tiger over in Asia..."

"How did you get beacons working over seas if you don't travel with your parents?"

"Believe it or not, our family used to not be as malfunctioning as you would think. First few years, they let me tag along. One night I overheard them talking about keeping me in the US after the business trip we were going through, so I made a beacon in France. When I got back to New York, I was already telling a bunch of people how to make it in their gardens."

"And you hacked NASA in order to get the readings now, right?" Natasha said.

I narrowed my eyes. "Why are you two so interested in this?"

They blinked at me and then looked at each other.

"We just wanted to know about it," Natasha said slowly.

"Yeah, but..." I shook my head, though I knew something was up. "Never mind. To answer your question, I didn't hack into NASA. They let me have access to their equipment."

"Oh, really?" Tony looked at me. "Why?"

"You know that football I gave you?" He nodded his head. "My science project needed to be tracked, and they let me use their satellites, seeing what was actually inside of it."

Everyone else gave me quizzical looks, so I told them about the football. No one really talked after that. I guess there wasn't much need to.

A sudden crash broke through the silence. The Avengers looked up from their food, but said nothing and looked at Tony. He raised an eyebrow.

"Jarvis?" he said.

"That would be Thor, Sir," the AI told him.

Everyone stood up. I cautiously stood up with them. Everyone had heard stories about Thor. He was an Asgardian – yes, Asgard is another planet – was a god, and was also the brother of Loki, the guy who had nearly taken over Earth. The party moved toward one of the nearby rooms. A ruggedly handsome, blonde haired man was crawling out of some rubble.

"Sorry about the damages," he said, "For some reason it has been even more difficult getting to Midguard these days."

"No problem, Thor," Tony replied, looking up at the hole in the ceiling, "I've done that plenty of times before. So, what's up?"

A grim look fell upon Thor's face. "Loki, he's... he's gone missing."


	6. Barren

Hey, guys... Sorry about the late update. I've been burying my head in a bunch of different fandoms as of late. But here's the next chapter.

**_AND PLEASE REVIEW!_**

. . . . . .

Chapter Six

Everyone stood in shocked silence. Loki. The God of Mischief and the one who had nearly killed everyone. The whole world knew that he had been taken back to Asgard and had been given his punishment there. And now he was out of his prison.

"Let me just get this straight," Tony said, "Loki's missing? And, I'm guessing, you can't find him in Asgard?"

Thor nodded. "The guards were with him the entire time, but somehow they have vanished, without a single word."

"Did he have the Tesseract?" I asked.

He looked at me. "Who are you? You were not here the last time I came to Midguard."

"My name is Ted Kellerman-"

"Kellerman, did you say?"

Tony put a hand on my shoulder. "Yeah, that's his name. But don't worry, he's a friend."

"My brother spoke about the Kellerman family," Thor said, "Something about a rivalry. A bad one."

I shifted under his gaze. He seemed to be sizing me up, trying to find out how bad of an enemy I would be. After a moment, however, he just shrugged and patted me on the head.

"So long as you fight on the right side," Thor told me.

I released the breath I hadn't realized I had been holding. "But, um, Thor? Did Loki have the Tesseract?"

"There is no way that he could have possibly gotten to the Tesseract, young Ted," he told me, "You have no need to worry."

That didn't exactly calm my nerves, but I didn't say anything.

"Has anything out of the ordinary happen here?" Thor asked the others, "Anything that could possibly be the doing of my brother?"

"There is this one guy who nearly killed Theodore," Steve said, "Sirakath, I believe his name was."

"He used some sort of 'magic,'" Tony continued, "We got his staff, but for some reason I doubt he's going to be crying in a corner for much longer. Here, come on, I got Jarvis to scan it into my computers."

"You did?" I asked as the group moved toward a cluster of computers.

"Yeah, why?"

I shrugged. "No reason. Just curious."

"Yeah," he said as if he didn't believe me, "Anyways, the staff was made of Vibranium, which in itself is interesting even if it hadn't been laced with Adamantium."

"Adamantium?" Thor repeated, "I thought you mortals couldn't get your hands on that."

"Well, we can make it, but it's _very _expensive," Dr. Banner told him, "I mean, not even Tony can make enough for anything worthwhile with the money he has."

"Hey!" Tony looked hurt. "That's a bit offensive to someone like me."

"I'm sorry," he replied, a small smile playing across his face, "It would be extremely difficult for you to make Adamantium even with your vast amounts of money."

"Sorry to cut into your train of thought," Steve said, interrupting Tony as he tried to argue with the scientist, "but we have bigger issues to face right now. If Sirakath can make this much Adamantium, then he might be able to make even more."

"Whoa, wait," I said, putting a hand up. They all stared at me. _If Sirakath can make this much Adamantium, _I thought, _then he could be..._ "He works for Hammer."

"What?" Clint demanded.

"In order to make Adamantium," I said simply, "you need a lot of money. The only industry that _I _know of that could even possibly rival Tony's is Hammer. I mean, my parents are millionaires because they make business calls for Hammer Industries. Just think of what the people who _make _the offers get! They-"

"Your parents work for the man that nearly destroyed Midguard a few years back?" Thor questioned.

I stopped talking with my mouth forming the next word I was going to say. My eyes flickered to his hand, which tensed around the hilt of his legendary hammer.

"Well?" he growled.

"Maybe?" I squeaked out.

There was a flurry of wind and I suddenly found myself pinned against one of the walls, Thor's hands gripping my upper arms. The others cried out and protested, but he barked at them to back up.

"He is a spy!" Thor growled.

"We've actually gone over this," I said meekly.

"_Nothing_ from you!" he shouted.

I flinched in his arms.

"He can use magic," Thor snarled, "How is that possible?"

"How can you-" Natasha started.

"Loki is my brother, I know things like that."

"Look, Thor," Tony said calmly, "Ted isn't a spy. If anything, he would be a spy _for _us. Not against us."

Thor did nothing.

"He's already helped us a lot," he continued, "In fact, he saved all of us by telling us that an antimatter bomb was in my basement. Let him go."

There was silence.

Thor suddenly let me go. Everyone watched as he stormed into another room – literally. A miniature storm cloud flickered near his head as he grumbled about me and my family. I slid to the ground, putting my head in my hands. Great, I thought. Just what we needed. Fighting and distrust on the _inside_ of the Avengers.

"Why is it that I cause conflict _everywhere _I go?" I muttered.

A hand was placed on my shoulder. "Hey, kid, it's not your fault you were born, so I would get over it. Thor will come to his senses."

I sighed and brought my head up to look at Stark, who was apparently the only one in the room. "You know that isn't true."

"I am, at the very least, partially correct," he told me, "You had no choice in the fact that you were born."

I smiled weakly, but even that faltered. "_This_ is what Sirakath would want."

"What?"

"If I know him _at all,_" I said, "he'd be working on trying to divide all of you. So you weren't as much of a problem when he starts going big." He shuddered. "Who knows? Maybe _he _got Loki out of whatever punishment he was going through. And if he could pull _that _off... What about the Tesseract? I know Thor said it would be fine, but..." I trailed off, just the thought of someone getting Loki away from Asgardian jails making me numb.

"Ted, we're the Avengers. Loki tried taking us down before, and we beat him-"

"After he nearly destroyed all of New York."

"But look at New York now." He pulled me to my feet and brought me to a nearby window. "Us humans are a lot more stubborn than any of the aliens that came around here were. We've rebuilt our city. And we've fought even more annoying people who take us away from our fancy houses and computers." Tony looked over his shoulder. "I don't know how long it'll take for Thor to calm down, though. Maybe you should go home for a day or two, let him cool off."

For a moment, I was silent, thinking about that. "My parents _are _in France..." Sighing, I nodded. "Alright, fine. Should I go now, or later?"

"Now," he said instantly, "Thor could go all Lightning McBoom Boom if we aren't careful."

"Lightning McBoom Boom?" I repeated, chuckling softly.

He shrugged. "It was the first thing I could think of."

"Yeah, sure." I glanced hesitantly at the door. "I should probably call a cab, shouldn't I?"

. . . . . .

Closing the door as silently as possible, I closed my eyes and rested my head against the cool metal in front of me. Why did I agree to coming back here? Even though my parents-

"Theodore?"

I jumped, twirling around to see a flurry of brown hair and blue eyes charging at me. I stumbled as my mother engulfed me in a bear hug.

"Mom?" I blinked at my father. "Dad? What are you doing here? I thought you were in France."

My mom held me at arms length. "We've been thinking a bit about where you've been going as of recent-"

"If you tell me that we are moving-" I started.

"We aren't moving," she said gently.

I furrowed my brows. "Then... what?"

My dad shrugged. "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps Stark isn't the man his father was. Perhaps he has changed."

My frown deepened. "What are you saying? I don't understand. You're view on Tony suddenly changed for some reason? Why?"

"Because we know you." He interrupted me when I started objecting. "Though you don't seem to understand that, we do know you. Very well, indeed. And yes, I respectively have been short with my temper in arguments recently, for which I am very sorry about. When SHIELD came by, Fury told me that you could help the world fend off any threats. At first I was a bit incredulous, but you are smart, and talented, and you have been able to make incredible things out of almost anything you get your hands."

I rubbed my eyes. Was I imagining this? The doctors _did _say that there was a possibility that it was possible for me to hallucinate after what I had been through.

My mother grabbed my wrist, pushing up my sleeve to expose the bandages wrapping my forearm. "Who did this?"

"Mom-"

"Theodore, who did this to you?"

I exhaled as my dad walked over to me. "You remember right after the invasion? We got separated, the police found me in a shack a little ways off?"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"I never _ran off,_" I whispered, "There was a man who was using me to get at SHIELD." I gulped. "I think it would be best if you sat down for this."

About thirty minutes later, my dad was holding a sobbing mother in his arms. "I can't believe we never knew about this."

"At least the thing is out of my arm," I said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

My mom pulled me against her wide stomach. "Oh, my brave son."


End file.
